The African Union has endorsed the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) as its specialized agency for capacity building.
Leaders and delegates attending the 29th Session of the AU Assembly gave the formal endorsement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, based on resolutions in at the 28th Ordinary Sesison in January.
The Foundation has advised and supported African countries in all of its 26-year history on “decisive steps to take to develop the key institutions and the practical skills urgently required for the continent’s economic transformation,” said a statement from the Assembly.
“We do accept with humility, this endorsement of the African Union which is a clear pointer to the fact that for the past 26 years, ACBF has undoubtedly proved, through its work, to be Africa’s knowledge and capacity building service provider of choice,” said ACBF’s executive secretary Emmanuel Nnadozie.
“In over two decades, we have robustly coordinated capacity development programs worth over 700 million US dollars across 45 countries and helped to set up over 40 reliable policy think tanks that do an indispensable job of advising African governments on the policies to implement to drive development through capacity development.
“Our production of several hundred evidence-based knowledge products on Africa’s capacity needs, and on practical trajectories to take in developing, using and retaining capacities honed in Africa, have proved to be fundamental and we have made a solid promise to deliver even more for the continent in our 2017-2021 Business Strategy.
“This strategy is based on four pillars, namely: enabling the effective delivery of continental development priorities, supporting countries to achieve tangible development results, enhancing private sector and civil society to contribute to sustainable development and leveraging knowledge and learning to increase development effectiveness.”
The endorsement places ACBF among a category of bodies called the “Specialised Agencies”—bodies set up by the heads of African Union states outside the AU structure.
Their management and budget are independent of the AU but they have mandates to examine and address specific issue, goal or objective falling under the general mandate of the African Union.
